PRACTICAL WISDOM FOR LEADING CONGREGATIONS: Alban Weekly at Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina, United States "A Renovation Project Brings Income to a Church Nonprofit" HOW ST. JOHN AME ZION CHURCH IS REVITALIZING A FORMER TOBACCO TOWN for Monday, 1 August 2016
A Renovation Project Brings Income to a Church Nonprofit
HOW ST. JOHN AME ZION CHURCH IS REVITALIZING A FORMER TOBACCO TOWN
When the Rev. Dr. Michael Bell arrived at St. John AME Zion Church in Wilson, North Carolina, in 2004, he saw the blight surrounding his historic church and walked around the area seven times.
The 23 dilapidated shotgun and saddlebag houses needed something beyond local government help, he knew.
"I didn't go to the city. I didn't go to the county. I went straight to the Lord," he said, recalling those days.
He was reading from a playbook thousands of years old. Like the leader Joshua in the Bible, Bell claimed the historically African-American neighborhood of East Wilson. It was his Jericho.
The 56-year-old preacher from Jamaica started small. He focused on helping the people of the neighborhood, first by hosting summer camps for children and later by converting the church parsonage into a shelter for 16 homeless men.
Read more »
Faith & Leadership
CONGREGATIONS, NEW FORMS OF CHURCH, MONEY, SUSTAINABILITY
A renovation project brings income to a church nonprofit and vitality to a former tobacco town
An enterprising leader of St. John AME Zion Church pushed his congregation to revive its dormant nonprofit and undertake an ambitious plan to buy and improve seven properties in a historically African-American area of Wilson, North Carolina.
When the Rev. Dr. Michael Bell arrived at St. John AME Zion Church in Wilson, North Carolina, in 2004, he saw the blight surrounding his historic church and walked around the area seven times.
The 23 dilapidated shotgun and saddlebag houses needed something beyond local government help, he knew.
“I didn’t go to the city. I didn’t go to the county. I went straight to the Lord,” he said, recalling those days.
He was reading from a playbook thousands of years old. Like the leader Joshua in the Bible, Bell claimed the historically African-American neighborhood of East Wilson. It was his Jericho.
The 56-year-old preacher from Jamaica started small; he focused on helping the people of the neighborhood, first by hosting summer camps for children and later by converting the church parsonage into a shelter for 16 homeless men.
Fourth grader Shiriena Dickerson (in foreground) attends the Save A Youth summer camp, one of the first community projects that Bell initiated when he came to Wilson.Leveraging the capacity of the church’s nonprofit, the St. John Community Development Corporation(link is external), Bell continued working to revitalize two and a half blocks of downtown Wilson by buying deteriorating buildings, renovating them and acting as landlord of the small businesses housed there.
Do you share Rev. Bell’s enthusiasm for microenterprises? Do you consider this the work of the church?
“I believe in microenterprises,” Bell said. “Churches should not sit around and wait for tithings and offerings, because there are poor folks in your congregation who can’t give because they don’t have it to give. But through microenterprises, you can stimulate the economy and put people to work.”
Bell and the nonprofit are passionate about their mission to help at-risk youth and revitalize a section of Wilson left in despair by a changing economy.
“We’re going to help hurting families find hope,” Bell said.
‘A mover and shaker’
In the 12 years since he arrived in this town of 50,000 people, Bell has taken on many roles.
In addition to serving as the executive director of the St. John CDC, he is a member of the Wilson City Council. He served as pastor of St. John AME Zion Church when he first arrived, but now is the presiding elder of the Wilson District of the AME Zion church.
He’s also a businessman; he’s the owner of SaYum, an ice cream parlor and Jamaican café in one of the renovated buildings.
“He’s been a mover and shaker,” said Annie Ward, the vice-chair of the St. John CDC board and deputy director of the Wilson County Department of Social Services.
Those who have worked with Bell say his energy seems endless -- one described him as a “force of nature.” He’s a gifted negotiator, a sharp businessman and an energetic visionary.
And, in between the demands of his many jobs, he sometimes entertains the youth by playing a Bob Marley tune on a guitar in the music room at the Save A Youth Center, a former school that now houses the organization’s youth programs.
His theology comes from Matthew 25:35: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”
Lu-Ann Monson, the preservation planner and historian for the city of Wilson, said Bell and other church leaders in East Wilson “have been the anchor to the community,” where the surviving enterprises were reduced to barbershops and churches.
“He worked on a strategic plan and used it as a catalyst to help hurting people find hope,” Ward said. “He’s enriched the lives of the youth to make an impact with after-school programs. We are empowering, embracing and enabling our youth.”
Economic decline and a new vision
East Wilson and the downtown area near the railroad tracks was once a predominately African-American, working-class enclave. Black men working in the tobacco industry lived with their families in the small houses owned by their employers.
From 1919 to the 1970s, Wilson was the world’s largest brightleaf tobacco market, Monson said. But as the tobacco industry dried up and the local economy shifted to higher-skilled manufacturing jobs, some workers were left behind.
The community lost its luster as landlords abandoned their properties or let them fall into disrepair. St. John AME Zion(link is external), a congregation founded in 1868 and located in a historic red-brick building, created the St. John CDC in 1998 to provide social and educational services as well as economic and workforce development.
But when Bell arrived as pastor of the church in 2004, it was “dormant,” Ward said. “We had a 501(c)(3) and $60 in the bank. That’s all we had.”
In 2005, St. John CDC established the Save A Youth program, which provides after-school care and summer camp for youth in grades K-8. It has served more than 3,500 children.
Are there existing structures within your organization that are dormant? Could they be revived and used to further its mission?
Then it launched the downtown revitalization project, which was designed to provide funding for the youth programs as well as jobs and community development.
The new vision involved purchasing the turn-of-the-century Terminal Drug Store property, which sits on seven parcels in the 400 block of East Nash Street.
It’s now called the Wilson Renaissance Complex and houses Bell’s SaYum Jamaican Food, Wilson Value Drug Store and Braswell’s Flower Shop.
The nonprofit is also working on converting the top of the building into affordable apartment lofts and adding a laundromat and a small grocery store.
Bell says that “with skillful negotiation,” the building was purchased for $60,000; the owners initially asked for $185,000.
St. John CDC pulled from many places to pay for the project. It borrowed funds from a bank and also secured a $56,000 grant from the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center for job creation. This was in addition to $50,000 from the city of Wilson for predevelopment and a feasibility study and $25,000 in county funding for engineering and architectural design. People in the community also donated their time, helping to clean the boarded-up building.
Located across the street from the Amtrak and city bus stations, the Renaissance Complex businesses now get foot traffic from travelers and residents, who provide a steady stream of customers for the SaYum, a cavernous eatery offering an eclectic menu.
Many travelers grab a quick sandwich between stops and use the free Wi-Fi while waiting on the next train or bus. Meanwhile, locals are drawn by the affordable lunch special and the hand-scooped ice cream.
Bell employs seven people at SaYum, including some “who’ve had issues with keeping a job,” he said.
Sheronda Jones, 23, enjoys her work at SaYum. A graduate of the Save A Youth program, Jones has known Bell for almost a decade. During her middle school and high school years, she attended the organization’s after-school program, where she got tutoring and help with end-of-grade tests.
“He was like a dad to me growing up,” she said. “He would sit me down and talk to me.” Eventually, Jones started working in the church office and then with children at the Save A Youth Center.
Bell recalls that Jones was once shy and withdrawn, but through the youth program and job-readiness courses, she’s blossomed into his senior employee at SaYum. The restaurant exposes her to a world beyond Wilson.
“I like meeting people coming off the train going to places all over,” she said.
St. John CDC is helping bring back other businesses as well. Ijeoma Uwakwe, a pharmacist, owns Wilson Value Drug Store, which offers prescription medicines, blood pressure checks, immunizations and patient counseling.
“We are here to serve the people, especially the people in the downtown area,” Uwakwe said. Many downtown residents don’t have cars, so a pharmacy within walking distance is a valuable asset, she said -- and she also offers free delivery.
A customer waits for a prescription at Wilson Value Drug Store.
Uwakwe is appreciative of the work of St. John CDC. “A couple of years back, this space was run-down. There was nothing in this building,” she said. “They have given me an opportunity. They have brought a breath of fresh air to the area.”
Building a sustainable model
The project wasn’t an instant success. For two years, the nonprofit struggled to keep the building open. At first, St. John CDC tried operating the restaurant and using the revenue to support Save A Youth.
But relying on projected, fluctuating income was not sustainable, and the organization shifted to a model based on renting the buildings and using the steady rental income -- now about $31,000 annually -- instead of trying to operate a business, Bell said.
Wilson City Manager Grant Goings notes that fundraising for community projects can be easier in the early years when a project is new, but sustainability is difficult over the long haul.
Goings said he is impressed that St. John CDC has been able to keep moving forward with revitalizing downtown and offering the community services with a more sustainable model.
“When [Bell] develops a vision, he is very persistent,” Goings said. “He has the tenacity to see the project through.”
The Rev. Dr. Michael Bell stands in the sanctuary of St. John AME Zion, a historic church in downtown Wilson.
One strategy has been to persuade property owners to sell their buildings for less than the asking price; Goings attributes that to Bell’s passion to help people and the greater community.
“His approach is very collaborative,” Goings said. “He’s not restricted to traditional funding models.”
The combination of loans, private-sector donations, government grants and church donations has proved successful. The organization also is a recipient of United Way funding, and has been awarded a $700,000 grant from the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency to assist in converting the upstairs loft of the renovated building into 16 studio apartments.
St. John CDC is described as “a small CDC with a big vision.” Does your vision match or outstrip the size of your organization?
Kimberly Van Dyk, the planning and community revitalization director of Wilson, has worked with St. John over the years.
“They are not a CDC with a big capacity,” Van Dyk said. “CDCs come in all shapes and sizes. They are a small CDC with a big vision.”
Save A Youth
For Bell and the St. John CDC board, community development is just one aspect of the mission.
The real success lies in helping the community’s youth through its after-school programs, summer camp, gang prevention, vocational training and other services.
At the end of the 2014-15 school year, nearly 97 percent of student participants tested in the after-school program performed at or above grade level.
“If he can get them in the door, he has a supporter for life,” Goings said.
In June, the Save A Youth program held a graduation ceremony celebrating the academic successes of the 365 children in the program. The featured speakers were Wilson Police Chief Thomas Hopkins and state Rep. Susan Martin, a testament to the buy-in from the community.
Shonnel Ramsey-Simmons was there. She said she was proud that her 5-year-old son, Joshua Simmons Jr., is reading on a second-grade level.
“The program is giving them the edge,” said Ramsey-Simmons, who volunteers at the Save A Youth Center. Her older children also participate in the after-school program and the summer camp.
“My son Avonte has a 4.321 GPA. He’s been an honor roll student,” she said. “And my daughter Kiosha is very talented. She plays the guitar and sings.”
St. John board member Ward said the graduation ceremony was a “real milestone,” and that seeing people from state officials to parents and grandparents at the event was a confirmation that their work is making a difference.
“It was a real sign that they believe in what we’re doing,” she said.
But Bell said he’s not finished with his brand of urban renewal yet. “I want to go from block to block and remove the blight and create beauty and jobs. I want a more cohesive community. I don’t want the city divided into east, north, south and west. All of Wilson should shine.”
He’s also thinking about writing a book. The title? “How to Push a Nonprofit to Its Maximum Limit.”
Questions to consider:
CONGREGATIONS, NEW FORMS OF CHURCH, MONEY, SUSTAINABILITY
A renovation project brings income to a church nonprofit and vitality to a former tobacco town
An enterprising leader of St. John AME Zion Church pushed his congregation to revive its dormant nonprofit and undertake an ambitious plan to buy and improve seven properties in a historically African-American area of Wilson, North Carolina.
When the Rev. Dr. Michael Bell arrived at St. John AME Zion Church in Wilson, North Carolina, in 2004, he saw the blight surrounding his historic church and walked around the area seven times.
The 23 dilapidated shotgun and saddlebag houses needed something beyond local government help, he knew.
“I didn’t go to the city. I didn’t go to the county. I went straight to the Lord,” he said, recalling those days.
He was reading from a playbook thousands of years old. Like the leader Joshua in the Bible, Bell claimed the historically African-American neighborhood of East Wilson. It was his Jericho.
The 56-year-old preacher from Jamaica started small; he focused on helping the people of the neighborhood, first by hosting summer camps for children and later by converting the church parsonage into a shelter for 16 homeless men.
Fourth grader Shiriena Dickerson (in foreground) attends the Save A Youth summer camp, one of the first community projects that Bell initiated when he came to Wilson.Leveraging the capacity of the church’s nonprofit, the St. John Community Development Corporation(link is external), Bell continued working to revitalize two and a half blocks of downtown Wilson by buying deteriorating buildings, renovating them and acting as landlord of the small businesses housed there.
Do you share Rev. Bell’s enthusiasm for microenterprises? Do you consider this the work of the church?
“I believe in microenterprises,” Bell said. “Churches should not sit around and wait for tithings and offerings, because there are poor folks in your congregation who can’t give because they don’t have it to give. But through microenterprises, you can stimulate the economy and put people to work.”
Bell and the nonprofit are passionate about their mission to help at-risk youth and revitalize a section of Wilson left in despair by a changing economy.
“We’re going to help hurting families find hope,” Bell said.
‘A mover and shaker’
In the 12 years since he arrived in this town of 50,000 people, Bell has taken on many roles.
In addition to serving as the executive director of the St. John CDC, he is a member of the Wilson City Council. He served as pastor of St. John AME Zion Church when he first arrived, but now is the presiding elder of the Wilson District of the AME Zion church.
He’s also a businessman; he’s the owner of SaYum, an ice cream parlor and Jamaican café in one of the renovated buildings.
“He’s been a mover and shaker,” said Annie Ward, the vice-chair of the St. John CDC board and deputy director of the Wilson County Department of Social Services.
Those who have worked with Bell say his energy seems endless -- one described him as a “force of nature.” He’s a gifted negotiator, a sharp businessman and an energetic visionary.
And, in between the demands of his many jobs, he sometimes entertains the youth by playing a Bob Marley tune on a guitar in the music room at the Save A Youth Center, a former school that now houses the organization’s youth programs.
His theology comes from Matthew 25:35: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”
Lu-Ann Monson, the preservation planner and historian for the city of Wilson, said Bell and other church leaders in East Wilson “have been the anchor to the community,” where the surviving enterprises were reduced to barbershops and churches.
“He worked on a strategic plan and used it as a catalyst to help hurting people find hope,” Ward said. “He’s enriched the lives of the youth to make an impact with after-school programs. We are empowering, embracing and enabling our youth.”
Economic decline and a new vision
East Wilson and the downtown area near the railroad tracks was once a predominately African-American, working-class enclave. Black men working in the tobacco industry lived with their families in the small houses owned by their employers.
From 1919 to the 1970s, Wilson was the world’s largest brightleaf tobacco market, Monson said. But as the tobacco industry dried up and the local economy shifted to higher-skilled manufacturing jobs, some workers were left behind.
The community lost its luster as landlords abandoned their properties or let them fall into disrepair. St. John AME Zion(link is external), a congregation founded in 1868 and located in a historic red-brick building, created the St. John CDC in 1998 to provide social and educational services as well as economic and workforce development.
But when Bell arrived as pastor of the church in 2004, it was “dormant,” Ward said. “We had a 501(c)(3) and $60 in the bank. That’s all we had.”
In 2005, St. John CDC established the Save A Youth program, which provides after-school care and summer camp for youth in grades K-8. It has served more than 3,500 children.
Are there existing structures within your organization that are dormant? Could they be revived and used to further its mission?
Then it launched the downtown revitalization project, which was designed to provide funding for the youth programs as well as jobs and community development.
The new vision involved purchasing the turn-of-the-century Terminal Drug Store property, which sits on seven parcels in the 400 block of East Nash Street.
It’s now called the Wilson Renaissance Complex and houses Bell’s SaYum Jamaican Food, Wilson Value Drug Store and Braswell’s Flower Shop.
The nonprofit is also working on converting the top of the building into affordable apartment lofts and adding a laundromat and a small grocery store.
Bell says that “with skillful negotiation,” the building was purchased for $60,000; the owners initially asked for $185,000.
St. John CDC pulled from many places to pay for the project. It borrowed funds from a bank and also secured a $56,000 grant from the N.C. Rural Economic Development Center for job creation. This was in addition to $50,000 from the city of Wilson for predevelopment and a feasibility study and $25,000 in county funding for engineering and architectural design. People in the community also donated their time, helping to clean the boarded-up building.
Located across the street from the Amtrak and city bus stations, the Renaissance Complex businesses now get foot traffic from travelers and residents, who provide a steady stream of customers for the SaYum, a cavernous eatery offering an eclectic menu.
Many travelers grab a quick sandwich between stops and use the free Wi-Fi while waiting on the next train or bus. Meanwhile, locals are drawn by the affordable lunch special and the hand-scooped ice cream.
Bell employs seven people at SaYum, including some “who’ve had issues with keeping a job,” he said.
Sheronda Jones, 23, enjoys her work at SaYum. A graduate of the Save A Youth program, Jones has known Bell for almost a decade. During her middle school and high school years, she attended the organization’s after-school program, where she got tutoring and help with end-of-grade tests.
“He was like a dad to me growing up,” she said. “He would sit me down and talk to me.” Eventually, Jones started working in the church office and then with children at the Save A Youth Center.
Bell recalls that Jones was once shy and withdrawn, but through the youth program and job-readiness courses, she’s blossomed into his senior employee at SaYum. The restaurant exposes her to a world beyond Wilson.
“I like meeting people coming off the train going to places all over,” she said.
St. John CDC is helping bring back other businesses as well. Ijeoma Uwakwe, a pharmacist, owns Wilson Value Drug Store, which offers prescription medicines, blood pressure checks, immunizations and patient counseling.
“We are here to serve the people, especially the people in the downtown area,” Uwakwe said. Many downtown residents don’t have cars, so a pharmacy within walking distance is a valuable asset, she said -- and she also offers free delivery.
A customer waits for a prescription at Wilson Value Drug Store.
Uwakwe is appreciative of the work of St. John CDC. “A couple of years back, this space was run-down. There was nothing in this building,” she said. “They have given me an opportunity. They have brought a breath of fresh air to the area.”
Building a sustainable model
The project wasn’t an instant success. For two years, the nonprofit struggled to keep the building open. At first, St. John CDC tried operating the restaurant and using the revenue to support Save A Youth.
But relying on projected, fluctuating income was not sustainable, and the organization shifted to a model based on renting the buildings and using the steady rental income -- now about $31,000 annually -- instead of trying to operate a business, Bell said.
Wilson City Manager Grant Goings notes that fundraising for community projects can be easier in the early years when a project is new, but sustainability is difficult over the long haul.
Goings said he is impressed that St. John CDC has been able to keep moving forward with revitalizing downtown and offering the community services with a more sustainable model.
“When [Bell] develops a vision, he is very persistent,” Goings said. “He has the tenacity to see the project through.”
The Rev. Dr. Michael Bell stands in the sanctuary of St. John AME Zion, a historic church in downtown Wilson.
One strategy has been to persuade property owners to sell their buildings for less than the asking price; Goings attributes that to Bell’s passion to help people and the greater community.
“His approach is very collaborative,” Goings said. “He’s not restricted to traditional funding models.”
The combination of loans, private-sector donations, government grants and church donations has proved successful. The organization also is a recipient of United Way funding, and has been awarded a $700,000 grant from the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency to assist in converting the upstairs loft of the renovated building into 16 studio apartments.
St. John CDC is described as “a small CDC with a big vision.” Does your vision match or outstrip the size of your organization?
Kimberly Van Dyk, the planning and community revitalization director of Wilson, has worked with St. John over the years.
“They are not a CDC with a big capacity,” Van Dyk said. “CDCs come in all shapes and sizes. They are a small CDC with a big vision.”
Save A Youth
For Bell and the St. John CDC board, community development is just one aspect of the mission.
The real success lies in helping the community’s youth through its after-school programs, summer camp, gang prevention, vocational training and other services.
At the end of the 2014-15 school year, nearly 97 percent of student participants tested in the after-school program performed at or above grade level.
“If he can get them in the door, he has a supporter for life,” Goings said.
In June, the Save A Youth program held a graduation ceremony celebrating the academic successes of the 365 children in the program. The featured speakers were Wilson Police Chief Thomas Hopkins and state Rep. Susan Martin, a testament to the buy-in from the community.
Shonnel Ramsey-Simmons was there. She said she was proud that her 5-year-old son, Joshua Simmons Jr., is reading on a second-grade level.
“The program is giving them the edge,” said Ramsey-Simmons, who volunteers at the Save A Youth Center. Her older children also participate in the after-school program and the summer camp.
“My son Avonte has a 4.321 GPA. He’s been an honor roll student,” she said. “And my daughter Kiosha is very talented. She plays the guitar and sings.”
St. John board member Ward said the graduation ceremony was a “real milestone,” and that seeing people from state officials to parents and grandparents at the event was a confirmation that their work is making a difference.
“It was a real sign that they believe in what we’re doing,” she said.
But Bell said he’s not finished with his brand of urban renewal yet. “I want to go from block to block and remove the blight and create beauty and jobs. I want a more cohesive community. I don’t want the city divided into east, north, south and west. All of Wilson should shine.”
He’s also thinking about writing a book. The title? “How to Push a Nonprofit to Its Maximum Limit.”
Questions to consider:
- Do you share Rev. Bell’s enthusiasm for microenterprises? Do you consider this the work of the church?
- The St. John CDC is both strategic and opportunistic. Would that approach work for your organization?
- Are there existing structures within your organization that are dormant? Could they be revived and used to further its mission?
- The Wilson city manager cites collaboration, tenacity, passion and the pursuit of non-traditional funding models as some of the reasons for Bell’s success. Could you develop these traits and approaches in your organization?
- St. John CDC is described as “a small CDC with a big vision.” Does your vision match or outstrip the size of your organization?
- The Save A Youth graduation brought together community leaders in a tangible show of support for St. John’s vision. Do you host events that bring together your partners? If not, would it be useful for you to do so?
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IDEAS THAT IMPACT: CONGREGATIONS & NON-PROFITS
Should your church start a nonprofit?
A successful church program can become a "caged bird" -- constrained by the structure of a single congregation. By starting a separate nonprofit, a congregation can let its programs fly, writes a consultant and author.
Read more from Joy Skjestad »
Should your church start a nonprofit?
A successful church program can become a "caged bird" -- constrained by the structure of a single congregation. By starting a separate nonprofit, a congregation can let its programs fly, writes a consultant and author.
Read more from Joy Skjestad »
Faith & Leadership
CONGREGATIONS, INNOVATION, CONGREGATIONAL INNOVATION
Should your church start a nonprofit?
A successful church program can become a “caged bird” -- constrained by the structure of a single congregation. By starting a separate nonprofit, a congregation can let its programs fly, writes Joy Skjegstad.
Enrollment in a 20-year-old church preschool program grows, but tuition no longer covers expenses. An afterschool program that once served 20 children now serves 200. A congregation wants to do development work in Haiti but needs support from other churches.
It may be time to start a nonprofit if church programs such as these have become like caged birds -- the policies, structure and limited resources of the church prevent the programs from growing and thriving. The congregation just can’t provide the funding, volunteers, management expertise or even a facility that will sustain the program and move it forward.
To really “fly,” the church may need to set up the program as its own nonprofit organization. In my work as a speaker, teacher and consultant in the nonprofit management and ministry development field, I’ve found that many churches with schools or preschools consider this model, and it is also commonly used for community development activities such as affordable housing, youth development, job training and health clinics.
This path does involve some risks, of course, but for many congregations the advantages of the nonprofit outweigh the disadvantages. Using examples -- some real, some hypothetical -- I will explore some of the issues involved, which are explained in more depth in my book “Starting a Nonprofit at Your Church(link is external).”
Let’s say First Church of Everytown, USA, has been running a preschool out of its basement for 20 years. As the preschool grows in popularity, the number of students increases. While in previous years, the preschool has been fully funded by tuition and gifts from church members, that’s no longer the case.
A nonprofit entity could be very useful in this situation, for several reasons: Because the preschool is growing, it needs outside resources (like grant funds) to sustain it. Tuition revenue has actually declined (even though the number of students has grown) because many new families need scholarships. The church is committed to providing care to whoever needs it, regardless of income. Because outside funders are generally more receptive to supporting a separate nonprofit than a church, a nonprofit may allow the preschool to get the money it needs to grow.
As a nonprofit, the preschool also can set up its own board of directors instead of being governed by the church board. The nonprofit board can focus on preschool business (rather than church business), and the preschool can recruit board members with expertise in early education or nonprofit management in addition to representation from the church. Similarly, a housing program may need “governors” with expertise in real estate acquisition and property management.
Often, congregations know it is time to consider this model when a church-based program has become bigger and more complex than when it was founded. Just imagine that an afterschool program that started 10 years ago as a gathering of 20 kids twice a week has grown into a full-fledged youth development program that operates 15 hours a week, providing academic support, sports and arts programs to 200 youth in grades K through 12. Such a large program may have outgrown the small or medium-sized congregation with which it originated.
I recently met with a congregation that is establishing a nonprofit to do community development work in Haiti. One of its goals is to attract funding and volunteers from other congregations, which was proving difficult when the project was organized under their church alone. By establishing a nonprofit, the congregation is helping persuade those other churches that the vision for the project extends far beyond the work of one church -- it requires a large group of Christians to do the work.
Having outlined some advantages of church-based nonprofits, I must note that this model is not for every congregation, and there are some disadvantages.
Some congregations find the additional reporting and administration required distracts from their ministry. One of my students once said: “All I really want to do is work with the families in our neighborhood. I don’t want to spend my time working with a board and fundraising. It’s not what I’m good at.”
Separate nonprofits also can create a distance between the program and the church. Sometimes the nonprofit drifts away from the faith focus of the church. (One way to avoid “faith drift” is to structure the nonprofit to stay connected to the church by requiring at least some board members to be from the church.)
Another concern is that church members may feel less ownership for programs under a separate nonprofit. They may assume that outside funders, volunteers and nonprofit staff can provide everything the programs need. As a result, donations of time and money from church members may decline if the work of the church nonprofit isn’t kept in front of the congregation.
The church-nonprofit model has great potential for helping congregations extend their programming and outreach by taking advantage of money, volunteers and expertise outside the congregation. That said, it’s important that each congregation undertakes an intentional process of weighing this model's benefits and risks.
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School brings new life to empty buildings
A decaying and empty Episcopal church complex became an asset to its poor Philadelphia neighborhood after church leaders saw its potential as a free school for needy children.
Read more from G. Jeffrey MacDonald »
Faith & Leadership
CONGREGATIONS, BUILDINGS, EDUCATION, K-12
School brings life to empty buildings
Students hard at work at St. James School, a faith-based Philadelphia middle school in the Episcopal tradition.Photos courtesy of Al Cassidy
A decaying and empty Episcopal church complex became an asset to its poor Philadelphia neighborhood after church leaders saw its potential as a free school for needy children.
In the late 2000s, the Episcopal Church of St. James the Less had ceased to be a beacon of hope in Allegheny West, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Philadelphia. Windows were broken and boarded-up. The grass was waist-high. Mold and animal feces made spaces unusable.
Today, the scene couldn’t be more different. St. James School(link is external), an Episcopal middle school, is completing its third year on the site. Its 46 students, all African-Americans from neighborhood families earning less than $22,000 a year, receive a tuition-free private education.
Formerly vacant spaces are now filled with sounds of children answering questions, sharing laughs and saying prayers in daily worship.
The change has been as dramatic for neighbors as it has been for the consecrated grounds. For seventh-grader Ezekiel McLeod, attending St. James means he’s not bullied anymore, as he was in public school. No longer is he shown Hollywood movies during class time in lieu of academic instruction, as he was in charter school, according to his grandmother and caregiver, Deborah McLeod.
Now he’s challenged by homework, enjoying choir, managing his anger with help from school counselors and becoming more helpful around the house, she said. That’s a recipe for staying in school, his grandmother hopes, even though he comes from a neighborhood where 48 percent of students don’t complete high school.
“There’s enough available at St. James to help him get back on track,” McLeod said. “The teachers care and love the children like we do.”
How the property was so radically transformed, in just a few years and without any change in ownership, offers a case study in how an albatross can become an asset for mission. It came to pass through a combination of resilient vision, valuable partnerships and savvy delivery of exactly what cautious stakeholders needed to feel at ease.
“We didn’t see our property as a white elephant,” said founding Head of School David Kasievich. “We saw our property as a resource for the neighborhood and for the church. We couldn’t imagine that we couldn’t come up with a way to re-purpose this property.”
An opening for a rebirth
The transformation of St. James is especially remarkable in light of its recent, painful history.
Disillusioned with what they saw as a liberal drift in the Episcopal Church, St. James parishioners tried to leave the Episcopal Church in 1999 and claim the property for the congregation. The Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania fought them all the way to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. The diocese won in a 2006 ruling that said the people might leave but the parish could not unilaterally quit the diocese. Hence, the parish would remain intact, at least as an entity on paper.
“That really left an opening for a rebirth on the property,” Kasievich said.
After that difficult episode, the diocese needed to decide what to do with the facilities. The complex straddles a busy street and includes not only a worship space but also three other buildings, a cemetery and a mausoleum. Endowment funds would cover only a portion of the upkeep costs. A diocesan standing committee, in charge during a rare three-year period with no bishop at the helm, would need to consider all its options.
Some hoped another Episcopal congregation might relocate to the site and make a fresh start there. That posed logistical challenges, and the idea didn’t take off.
“The mentality of the diocese is that our older properties and older buildings are not necessarily always well-suited for programs and for contemporary congregations,” said Andrew Kellner, the canon for family and young adult ministries of the Diocese of Pennsylvania. By and large, he said, “if we cannot find a new use for it in the short term, then buildings are put up for sale and the money is used in other ways.”
But selling wasn’t an option in this case, because of the terms of the court ruling. Stakeholders would therefore need to think creatively about what to do with this 1846 church, a National Historic Landmark(link is external) in a poverty-stricken neighborhood that had seen an exodus of manufacturers over the prior 30 years.
Vision meets opportunity
Meanwhile, the Rev. Sean Mullen, the rector at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church five miles away, had a dream of opening a new Episcopal school for underserved children in this city with serious education problems.
The Rev. Sean Mullen greets a student at St. James.
He found his opportunity at the vacant St. James site. But first, he and his parishioners would need to overcome a series of hurdles. The congregation was willing to invest up to $25,000 per year to maintain buildings and lay groundwork for ministries at St. James. He proposed in 2008 that St. Mark’s adopt the Church of St. James the Less as a mission and explore what might come of it.
Mullen and his flock soon learned that helping the decision-makers see new possibilities for the site would require patience and demonstration.
In 2009, St. Mark’s and the diocese partnered to host a new venture, called City Camp(link is external), at the St. James site. Day campers came from the neighborhood. Other youth, on mission trips from area churches, slept in tents. Security guards and stone walls helped ensure everyone’s safety.
The camp “enabled us to make some strong connections with the neighborhood,” Kellner said. It also built relationships with area churches, which sent youth to the camp and later became financial backers of St. James School.
Making the leap from a camp to a school on the property would involve more detailed planning -- and a lot more money. The numbers were ambitious. The school would cost around $20,000 per child to operate. Families would pay no tuition, just a $30-per-month fee.
Each year, the school would add one grade, until grades five through eight were established and as many as 68 students enrolled. For this to work, donors would need to step up and support an as-yet-unproven enterprise.
Mullen recruited one of his parishioners, a pediatric oncologist named Audrey Evans, to make a crucial gift of $50,000. Her donation would go to pay Kasievich, the professional fundraiser who would go on to become St. James’ founding head of school, but he’d need to win approval for the project first. The risk paid off. It delivered what the project needed to become reality: a plan the diocese could endorse.
Planning for success
Kasievich began his research by surveying local residents about their needs and hopes for the vacant St. James property, which revealed the need and desire for a new school.
On that front, Kasievich investigated what had worked elsewhere. He looked especially at Epiphany School, a tuition-free Episcopal school in Boston’s tough Dorchester neighborhood.
St. James serves neighborhood children tuition-free.
He proposed that St. James School run on the Epiphany model, which relies on a diverse network of benefactors. Like Epiphany, the proposed St. James School would be part of a national network of tuition-free schools.
He also studied why other Episcopal schools had closed in Philadelphia. He concluded they had been too dependent on one institution, such as a single parish, for support. He therefore offered the committee a plan based on projects that had succeeded in similarly challenging environments. Among the key elements: St. James School would have a diverse support base and a team of experienced pros at the ready to offer guidance along the way.
Kasievich was convinced the project could work, but he knew he needed to be diplomatic and patient, giving others time to recognize the opportunity he saw.
“We would point to all these wonderful facts about our network of schools, how it’s helped this neighborhood and that church, just showing the results,” Kasievich said. “How could we even think of saying no to this? That’s what I was thinking always. I never said that, though.”
While diocesan staff and standing committee members were hopeful and intrigued, they needed more assurances. How could the diocese be sure St. James wouldn’t become a liability, either legally or financially?
Mullen sums up the committee’s trepidation this way: “They were very concerned to make sure they would not get stuck with the bill if things went belly up.”
To protect the diocese, St. James School was established as a private nonprofit that leases the property from the diocese for a nominal sum. Thus, the diocese isn’t responsible if the school fails or gets sued.
Meanwhile, the Church of St. James the Less continues to exist on paper, with Mullen as priest-in-charge, even as he maintains his role as rector of St. Mark’s. This structure enables St. James’ endowment to keep supporting the facilities’ maintenance costs.
By late 2010, not everyone was convinced. Some on the committee held out hope that St. James would be home to a parish, not a school or anything else.
“I responded by saying that we were opening a parish -- just not a traditional parish,” Kasievich said. “The school is a faith community. I remember saying, ‘Just be patient. The diocese will have a faith community. … It will be a community that’s worshipping, praying, having fellowship, serving others and making a difference in the neighborhood.’”
With its objections answered, the standing committee gave the project the green light in 2011. The founders were ecstatic, but the work was just beginning.
Raising money, spreading hope
St. James still needed to cultivate donors to support an annual budget, which was nearly $500,000 at the start and is now close to $1.3 million. A pivotal $125,000 gift from the Good Samaritan Foundation enabled the school to open its doors for the first year.
Staffers, including David Kaseivich, right, recruit students.
One of Kasievich’s most effective fundraising techniques is sharing the school’s unusual approach to student recruitment. He and a couple of faculty members -- eight of whom live, eat and pray together on campus in a community house -- ride bikes down the roughest streets of Allegheny West.
They look for kids who might be malnourished or in the care of a drunk parent. In such sad street scenes, where others might see hopelessness, these educators see opportunity to make a real difference in a young person’s life.
The St. James student body is truly needy; children come from families earning as little as $4,000 a year. Those with visible needs on street corners rank among the best prospects, Kasievich said, because they’re kids whom the school can help.
He also tells the rest of the St. James story: how the school provides uniforms, how teachers cultivate virtues such as kindness and courage in their students, how kids are trained in manners and cooperation as well as academic skills.
Moved by the vision, a diverse set of supporters have come through for St. James. More than 600 benefactors, including individuals, corporations, foundations and churches (Episcopal, Presbyterian and Lutheran), provide ongoing funding.
“Everybody sees education as such a hot-button issue that when they see an instance like this, where the school is trying to grapple with the problems in one of the most hard-pressed areas of the city, they jump right in” as donors, said Jim Ballengee, a member of the St. James board of directors.
The faith-based approach is especially welcome in Philadelphia these days, Ballengee added, since religious schools don’t have the profit motive that seems to drive some charter school operators.
Parents have been eager to enroll their kids in St. James, said McLeod, whose grandson attends the school, because they’re roundly unhappy with other local schools.
Other neighbors have been supportive, too. They welcome the school’s commitment to their neighborhood, according to Mark Green, a Democratic Party leader in Philadelphia’s 38th Ward, where St. James is located.
Academics are just one part of the school's model, which also aims to help students develop their moral, spiritual, physical and creative gifts.
St. James students “are much more disciplined, so you don’t have the behavior problems that you would have at a public school, especially in an urban setting like Philadelphia,” Green said. “They’re getting more one-on-one attention. The level of academics has improved. It’s like a stable foundation within the community.”
Green finds that residents appreciate the opportunity to relax on the patio furniture the school provides for them to use beside the shady cemetery. When they need space for a function, such as a funeral reception or a birthday party, they can rent a hall at St. James for a small fee.
Having St. James staff housed on-site means the educators get to visit with neighbors routinely when they’re outside gardening or walking dogs. They’re also on hand to provide students with extra help outside of normal school hours.
And when neighborhood problems arise, they get involved. When a man was trying to lure St. James girls into his home after school, for example, staffers notified police and helped keep watch on street corners in the area, McLeod said.
“Once the school was made aware of it, everybody pitched in to make sure those children were safe,” McLeod said. “If there’s anything that goes on, people at St. James make sure that they are on top of it.”
Now St. James is looking ahead to becoming sustainable in perpetuity. The school’s board of directors established an endowment in late April with $33,000. It’s a start, Kasievich said, for an institution that expects to be around for a long time.
Questions to consider:
CONTINUE YOUR OWN LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
CONGREGATIONS, INNOVATION, CONGREGATIONAL INNOVATION
Should your church start a nonprofit?
A successful church program can become a “caged bird” -- constrained by the structure of a single congregation. By starting a separate nonprofit, a congregation can let its programs fly, writes Joy Skjegstad.
Enrollment in a 20-year-old church preschool program grows, but tuition no longer covers expenses. An afterschool program that once served 20 children now serves 200. A congregation wants to do development work in Haiti but needs support from other churches.
It may be time to start a nonprofit if church programs such as these have become like caged birds -- the policies, structure and limited resources of the church prevent the programs from growing and thriving. The congregation just can’t provide the funding, volunteers, management expertise or even a facility that will sustain the program and move it forward.
To really “fly,” the church may need to set up the program as its own nonprofit organization. In my work as a speaker, teacher and consultant in the nonprofit management and ministry development field, I’ve found that many churches with schools or preschools consider this model, and it is also commonly used for community development activities such as affordable housing, youth development, job training and health clinics.
This path does involve some risks, of course, but for many congregations the advantages of the nonprofit outweigh the disadvantages. Using examples -- some real, some hypothetical -- I will explore some of the issues involved, which are explained in more depth in my book “Starting a Nonprofit at Your Church(link is external).”
Let’s say First Church of Everytown, USA, has been running a preschool out of its basement for 20 years. As the preschool grows in popularity, the number of students increases. While in previous years, the preschool has been fully funded by tuition and gifts from church members, that’s no longer the case.
A nonprofit entity could be very useful in this situation, for several reasons: Because the preschool is growing, it needs outside resources (like grant funds) to sustain it. Tuition revenue has actually declined (even though the number of students has grown) because many new families need scholarships. The church is committed to providing care to whoever needs it, regardless of income. Because outside funders are generally more receptive to supporting a separate nonprofit than a church, a nonprofit may allow the preschool to get the money it needs to grow.
As a nonprofit, the preschool also can set up its own board of directors instead of being governed by the church board. The nonprofit board can focus on preschool business (rather than church business), and the preschool can recruit board members with expertise in early education or nonprofit management in addition to representation from the church. Similarly, a housing program may need “governors” with expertise in real estate acquisition and property management.
Often, congregations know it is time to consider this model when a church-based program has become bigger and more complex than when it was founded. Just imagine that an afterschool program that started 10 years ago as a gathering of 20 kids twice a week has grown into a full-fledged youth development program that operates 15 hours a week, providing academic support, sports and arts programs to 200 youth in grades K through 12. Such a large program may have outgrown the small or medium-sized congregation with which it originated.
I recently met with a congregation that is establishing a nonprofit to do community development work in Haiti. One of its goals is to attract funding and volunteers from other congregations, which was proving difficult when the project was organized under their church alone. By establishing a nonprofit, the congregation is helping persuade those other churches that the vision for the project extends far beyond the work of one church -- it requires a large group of Christians to do the work.
Having outlined some advantages of church-based nonprofits, I must note that this model is not for every congregation, and there are some disadvantages.
Some congregations find the additional reporting and administration required distracts from their ministry. One of my students once said: “All I really want to do is work with the families in our neighborhood. I don’t want to spend my time working with a board and fundraising. It’s not what I’m good at.”
Separate nonprofits also can create a distance between the program and the church. Sometimes the nonprofit drifts away from the faith focus of the church. (One way to avoid “faith drift” is to structure the nonprofit to stay connected to the church by requiring at least some board members to be from the church.)
Another concern is that church members may feel less ownership for programs under a separate nonprofit. They may assume that outside funders, volunteers and nonprofit staff can provide everything the programs need. As a result, donations of time and money from church members may decline if the work of the church nonprofit isn’t kept in front of the congregation.
The church-nonprofit model has great potential for helping congregations extend their programming and outreach by taking advantage of money, volunteers and expertise outside the congregation. That said, it’s important that each congregation undertakes an intentional process of weighing this model's benefits and risks.
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School brings new life to empty buildings
A decaying and empty Episcopal church complex became an asset to its poor Philadelphia neighborhood after church leaders saw its potential as a free school for needy children.
Read more from G. Jeffrey MacDonald »
Faith & Leadership
CONGREGATIONS, BUILDINGS, EDUCATION, K-12
School brings life to empty buildings
Students hard at work at St. James School, a faith-based Philadelphia middle school in the Episcopal tradition.Photos courtesy of Al Cassidy
A decaying and empty Episcopal church complex became an asset to its poor Philadelphia neighborhood after church leaders saw its potential as a free school for needy children.
In the late 2000s, the Episcopal Church of St. James the Less had ceased to be a beacon of hope in Allegheny West, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Philadelphia. Windows were broken and boarded-up. The grass was waist-high. Mold and animal feces made spaces unusable.
Today, the scene couldn’t be more different. St. James School(link is external), an Episcopal middle school, is completing its third year on the site. Its 46 students, all African-Americans from neighborhood families earning less than $22,000 a year, receive a tuition-free private education.
Formerly vacant spaces are now filled with sounds of children answering questions, sharing laughs and saying prayers in daily worship.
The change has been as dramatic for neighbors as it has been for the consecrated grounds. For seventh-grader Ezekiel McLeod, attending St. James means he’s not bullied anymore, as he was in public school. No longer is he shown Hollywood movies during class time in lieu of academic instruction, as he was in charter school, according to his grandmother and caregiver, Deborah McLeod.
Now he’s challenged by homework, enjoying choir, managing his anger with help from school counselors and becoming more helpful around the house, she said. That’s a recipe for staying in school, his grandmother hopes, even though he comes from a neighborhood where 48 percent of students don’t complete high school.
“There’s enough available at St. James to help him get back on track,” McLeod said. “The teachers care and love the children like we do.”
How the property was so radically transformed, in just a few years and without any change in ownership, offers a case study in how an albatross can become an asset for mission. It came to pass through a combination of resilient vision, valuable partnerships and savvy delivery of exactly what cautious stakeholders needed to feel at ease.
“We didn’t see our property as a white elephant,” said founding Head of School David Kasievich. “We saw our property as a resource for the neighborhood and for the church. We couldn’t imagine that we couldn’t come up with a way to re-purpose this property.”
An opening for a rebirth
The transformation of St. James is especially remarkable in light of its recent, painful history.
Disillusioned with what they saw as a liberal drift in the Episcopal Church, St. James parishioners tried to leave the Episcopal Church in 1999 and claim the property for the congregation. The Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania fought them all the way to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. The diocese won in a 2006 ruling that said the people might leave but the parish could not unilaterally quit the diocese. Hence, the parish would remain intact, at least as an entity on paper.
“That really left an opening for a rebirth on the property,” Kasievich said.
After that difficult episode, the diocese needed to decide what to do with the facilities. The complex straddles a busy street and includes not only a worship space but also three other buildings, a cemetery and a mausoleum. Endowment funds would cover only a portion of the upkeep costs. A diocesan standing committee, in charge during a rare three-year period with no bishop at the helm, would need to consider all its options.
Some hoped another Episcopal congregation might relocate to the site and make a fresh start there. That posed logistical challenges, and the idea didn’t take off.
“The mentality of the diocese is that our older properties and older buildings are not necessarily always well-suited for programs and for contemporary congregations,” said Andrew Kellner, the canon for family and young adult ministries of the Diocese of Pennsylvania. By and large, he said, “if we cannot find a new use for it in the short term, then buildings are put up for sale and the money is used in other ways.”
But selling wasn’t an option in this case, because of the terms of the court ruling. Stakeholders would therefore need to think creatively about what to do with this 1846 church, a National Historic Landmark(link is external) in a poverty-stricken neighborhood that had seen an exodus of manufacturers over the prior 30 years.
Vision meets opportunity
Meanwhile, the Rev. Sean Mullen, the rector at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church five miles away, had a dream of opening a new Episcopal school for underserved children in this city with serious education problems.
The Rev. Sean Mullen greets a student at St. James.
He found his opportunity at the vacant St. James site. But first, he and his parishioners would need to overcome a series of hurdles. The congregation was willing to invest up to $25,000 per year to maintain buildings and lay groundwork for ministries at St. James. He proposed in 2008 that St. Mark’s adopt the Church of St. James the Less as a mission and explore what might come of it.
Mullen and his flock soon learned that helping the decision-makers see new possibilities for the site would require patience and demonstration.
In 2009, St. Mark’s and the diocese partnered to host a new venture, called City Camp(link is external), at the St. James site. Day campers came from the neighborhood. Other youth, on mission trips from area churches, slept in tents. Security guards and stone walls helped ensure everyone’s safety.
The camp “enabled us to make some strong connections with the neighborhood,” Kellner said. It also built relationships with area churches, which sent youth to the camp and later became financial backers of St. James School.
Making the leap from a camp to a school on the property would involve more detailed planning -- and a lot more money. The numbers were ambitious. The school would cost around $20,000 per child to operate. Families would pay no tuition, just a $30-per-month fee.
Each year, the school would add one grade, until grades five through eight were established and as many as 68 students enrolled. For this to work, donors would need to step up and support an as-yet-unproven enterprise.
Mullen recruited one of his parishioners, a pediatric oncologist named Audrey Evans, to make a crucial gift of $50,000. Her donation would go to pay Kasievich, the professional fundraiser who would go on to become St. James’ founding head of school, but he’d need to win approval for the project first. The risk paid off. It delivered what the project needed to become reality: a plan the diocese could endorse.
Planning for success
Kasievich began his research by surveying local residents about their needs and hopes for the vacant St. James property, which revealed the need and desire for a new school.
On that front, Kasievich investigated what had worked elsewhere. He looked especially at Epiphany School, a tuition-free Episcopal school in Boston’s tough Dorchester neighborhood.
St. James serves neighborhood children tuition-free.
He proposed that St. James School run on the Epiphany model, which relies on a diverse network of benefactors. Like Epiphany, the proposed St. James School would be part of a national network of tuition-free schools.
He also studied why other Episcopal schools had closed in Philadelphia. He concluded they had been too dependent on one institution, such as a single parish, for support. He therefore offered the committee a plan based on projects that had succeeded in similarly challenging environments. Among the key elements: St. James School would have a diverse support base and a team of experienced pros at the ready to offer guidance along the way.
Kasievich was convinced the project could work, but he knew he needed to be diplomatic and patient, giving others time to recognize the opportunity he saw.
“We would point to all these wonderful facts about our network of schools, how it’s helped this neighborhood and that church, just showing the results,” Kasievich said. “How could we even think of saying no to this? That’s what I was thinking always. I never said that, though.”
While diocesan staff and standing committee members were hopeful and intrigued, they needed more assurances. How could the diocese be sure St. James wouldn’t become a liability, either legally or financially?
Mullen sums up the committee’s trepidation this way: “They were very concerned to make sure they would not get stuck with the bill if things went belly up.”
To protect the diocese, St. James School was established as a private nonprofit that leases the property from the diocese for a nominal sum. Thus, the diocese isn’t responsible if the school fails or gets sued.
Meanwhile, the Church of St. James the Less continues to exist on paper, with Mullen as priest-in-charge, even as he maintains his role as rector of St. Mark’s. This structure enables St. James’ endowment to keep supporting the facilities’ maintenance costs.
By late 2010, not everyone was convinced. Some on the committee held out hope that St. James would be home to a parish, not a school or anything else.
“I responded by saying that we were opening a parish -- just not a traditional parish,” Kasievich said. “The school is a faith community. I remember saying, ‘Just be patient. The diocese will have a faith community. … It will be a community that’s worshipping, praying, having fellowship, serving others and making a difference in the neighborhood.’”
With its objections answered, the standing committee gave the project the green light in 2011. The founders were ecstatic, but the work was just beginning.
Raising money, spreading hope
St. James still needed to cultivate donors to support an annual budget, which was nearly $500,000 at the start and is now close to $1.3 million. A pivotal $125,000 gift from the Good Samaritan Foundation enabled the school to open its doors for the first year.
Staffers, including David Kaseivich, right, recruit students.
One of Kasievich’s most effective fundraising techniques is sharing the school’s unusual approach to student recruitment. He and a couple of faculty members -- eight of whom live, eat and pray together on campus in a community house -- ride bikes down the roughest streets of Allegheny West.
They look for kids who might be malnourished or in the care of a drunk parent. In such sad street scenes, where others might see hopelessness, these educators see opportunity to make a real difference in a young person’s life.
The St. James student body is truly needy; children come from families earning as little as $4,000 a year. Those with visible needs on street corners rank among the best prospects, Kasievich said, because they’re kids whom the school can help.
He also tells the rest of the St. James story: how the school provides uniforms, how teachers cultivate virtues such as kindness and courage in their students, how kids are trained in manners and cooperation as well as academic skills.
Moved by the vision, a diverse set of supporters have come through for St. James. More than 600 benefactors, including individuals, corporations, foundations and churches (Episcopal, Presbyterian and Lutheran), provide ongoing funding.
“Everybody sees education as such a hot-button issue that when they see an instance like this, where the school is trying to grapple with the problems in one of the most hard-pressed areas of the city, they jump right in” as donors, said Jim Ballengee, a member of the St. James board of directors.
The faith-based approach is especially welcome in Philadelphia these days, Ballengee added, since religious schools don’t have the profit motive that seems to drive some charter school operators.
Parents have been eager to enroll their kids in St. James, said McLeod, whose grandson attends the school, because they’re roundly unhappy with other local schools.
Other neighbors have been supportive, too. They welcome the school’s commitment to their neighborhood, according to Mark Green, a Democratic Party leader in Philadelphia’s 38th Ward, where St. James is located.
Academics are just one part of the school's model, which also aims to help students develop their moral, spiritual, physical and creative gifts.
St. James students “are much more disciplined, so you don’t have the behavior problems that you would have at a public school, especially in an urban setting like Philadelphia,” Green said. “They’re getting more one-on-one attention. The level of academics has improved. It’s like a stable foundation within the community.”
Green finds that residents appreciate the opportunity to relax on the patio furniture the school provides for them to use beside the shady cemetery. When they need space for a function, such as a funeral reception or a birthday party, they can rent a hall at St. James for a small fee.
Having St. James staff housed on-site means the educators get to visit with neighbors routinely when they’re outside gardening or walking dogs. They’re also on hand to provide students with extra help outside of normal school hours.
And when neighborhood problems arise, they get involved. When a man was trying to lure St. James girls into his home after school, for example, staffers notified police and helped keep watch on street corners in the area, McLeod said.
“Once the school was made aware of it, everybody pitched in to make sure those children were safe,” McLeod said. “If there’s anything that goes on, people at St. James make sure that they are on top of it.”
Now St. James is looking ahead to becoming sustainable in perpetuity. The school’s board of directors established an endowment in late April with $33,000. It’s a start, Kasievich said, for an institution that expects to be around for a long time.
Questions to consider:
- Are there "albatrosses" in your community you could turn into assets? Hopelessness into opportunity?
- Have you asked community members about their needs and dreams? Are you casting a vision bold enough to meet them?
- How do you build trust with people you serve?
- Before you start a new initiative, how do you learn from previous successes -- and failures?
- What kind of information is most persuasive in building support for new ventures?
CONTINUE YOUR OWN LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
Denominational Leadership:
A Program of Leadership Education at Duke Divinity
You've been called to offer your leadership gifts to your denomination at a regional or national level. The skills that you cultivated in previous roles still apply ... but they don't translate perfectly. Leadership Education's four-day Denominational Leadership program equips leaders in transition with the tools and strategies they need to enable innovation, manage change, and inspire a team on a larger scale. Applications for the Fall 2016 cohort are due September 19.
Learn more and apply now »
FROM THE ALBAN LIBRARY
Memories, Hopes, and Conversations is a powerful resource that introduces readers to Appreciative Inquiry -- a transformational organizational change process that focuses on the strengths of a group. The second edition has been revised and expanded throughout, featuring important new materials on leadership and missional frameworks, as well as five chapters from pastors describing the transformational experiences of their churches and neighbors using Appreciative Inquiry. The book offers a dynamic overview of the Appreciative Inquiry process, real stories of change in action, and a wealth of practical resources for churches to pursue this journey of appreciation, imagination, and change.
Learn more and order the book »
Follow us on social media:
VISIT OUR WEBSITE
Alban at Duke Divinity School
A Program of Leadership Education at Duke Divinity
You've been called to offer your leadership gifts to your denomination at a regional or national level. The skills that you cultivated in previous roles still apply ... but they don't translate perfectly. Leadership Education's four-day Denominational Leadership program equips leaders in transition with the tools and strategies they need to enable innovation, manage change, and inspire a team on a larger scale. Applications for the Fall 2016 cohort are due September 19.
Learn more and apply now »
FROM THE ALBAN LIBRARY
Learn more and order the book »
Follow us on social media:
VISIT OUR WEBSITE
Alban at Duke Divinity School
1121 West Chapel Hill Street, Suite 101
Durham, North Carolina 27701, United States
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